Power went out on the University of Idaho campus and in parts of Moscow Friday afternoon for approximately 25 minutes. According to a City of Moscow employee, the outage was caused by a car colliding with a power pole just off campus.
In a statement from Avista Utilities, the power service stated that the collision happened near 602 W. Third St.
The power went out around 1:15 p.m. and came back up around 1:40, according to UI Senior Director of Communications Jodi Walker and Matthew Williams from campus security.
The power outage has affected the majority of buildings on campus, with some buildings being evacuated for just a few minutes according to Williams. Campus security also attempted to locate any individuals within elevators at the time of the outage and looked to secure any volatile substances. Any such substances were not a problem in this outage, according to Williams.
Avista spokesperson David Vowels said that 782 customers were affected by the outage, as well as the east side of UI campus, and that service should be resumed as normal.
A central monitoring system alerts the university when a power outage occurs. All buildings on campus have a backup generator according to Williams.
Any other power outages in the Moscow area can be reported by following the steps on their website.
Abigail Spencer and Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ABairdSpencer